Biomedical subjects

Hans Menning

Publications and source records attributed to Hans Menning.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Sequential audiovisual interactions during speech perception: a whole-head MEG study.

Using whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG), audiovisual (AV) interactions during speech perception (/ta/- and /pa/-syllables) were investigated in 20 subjects. Congruent AV events served as the 'standards' of an oddball design. The deviants encompassed incongruent /ta/-/pa/ configurations differing from the standards either in the acoustic or the visual domain. As an auditory non-speech control condition, the same video signals were synchronized with either one of two complex tones. As in natural speech, visual movement onset preceded acoustic signals by about 150 ms. First, the impact of visual information on auditorily evoked fields to non-speech sounds was determined. Larger facial movements (/pa/ versus /ta/) yielded enhanced early responses such as the M100 component, indicating, most presumably, anticipatory pre-activation of auditory cortex by visual motion cues. As a second step of analysis, mismatch fields (MMF) were calculated. Acoustic deviants elicited a typical MMF, peaking ca. 180 ms after stimulus onset, whereas visual deviants gave rise to later responses (220 ms) of a more posterior-medial source location. Finally, a late (275 ms), left-lateralized visually-induced MMF component, resembling the acoustic mismatch response, emerged during the speech condition, presumably reflecting phonetic/linguistic operations. There is mounting functional imaging evidence for an early impact of visual information on auditory cortical regions during speech perception. The present study suggests at least two successive AV interactions in association with syllable recognition tasks: early activation of auditory areas depending upon visual motion cues and a later speech-specific left-lateralized response mediated, conceivably, by backward-projections from multisensory areas.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Dresden PTSD treatment study: randomized controlled trial of motor vehicle accident survivors.

BACKGROUND: We translated, modified, and extended a cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) protocol by Blanchard and Hickling (2003) for the purpose of treating survivors of MVA with full or subsyndromal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) whose native language is German. The treatment manual included some additional elements, e. g. cognitive procedures, imaginal reliving, and facilitating of posttraumatic growth. The current study was conducted in order to test the efficacy of the modified manual by administering randomized controlled trial in which a CBT was compared to a wait-list control condition. METHODS: Forty-two motor vehicle accident survivors with chronic or severe subsyndromal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) completed the treatment trial with two or three detailed assessments (pre, post, and 3-month follow-up). RESULTS: CAPS-scores showed significantly greater improvement in the CBT condition as compared to the wait list condition (group x time interaction effect size d = 1.61). Intent-to-treat analysis supported the outcome (d = 1.34). Categorical diagnostic data indicated clinical recovery of 67% (post-treatment) and 76% (3 months FU) in the treatment group. Additionally, patients of the CBT condition showed significantly greater reductions in co-morbid major depression than the control condition. At follow-up the improvements were stable in the active treatment condition. CONCLUSION: The degree of improvement in our treatment group was comparable to that in previously reported treatment trials of PTSD with cognitive behavioral therapy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN66456536.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2005

Spatial auditory attention is modulated by tactile priming.

Previous studies have shown that cross-modal processing affects perception at a variety of neuronal levels. In this study, event-related brain responses were recorded via whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG). Spatial auditory attention was directed via tactile pre-cues (primes) to one of four locations in the peripersonal space (left and right hand versus face). Auditory stimuli were white noise bursts, convoluted with head-related transfer functions, which ensured spatial perception of the four locations. Tactile primes (200-300 ms prior to acoustic onset) were applied randomly to one of these locations. Attentional load was controlled by three different visual distraction tasks. The auditory P50m (about 50 ms after stimulus onset) showed a significant "proximity" effect (larger responses to face stimulation as well as a "contralaterality" effect between side of stimulation and hemisphere). The tactile primes essentially reduced both the P50m and N100m components. However, facial tactile pre-stimulation yielded an enhanced ipsilateral N100m. These results show that earlier responses are mainly governed by exogenous stimulus properties whereas cross-sensory interaction is spatially selective at a later (endogenous) processing stage.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

MEG responses to rippled noise and Huggins pitch reveal similar cortical representations.

The onset of pitch within an ongoing noise signal evokes a particular brain activity, the pitch onset response (POR). Using whole-head MEG, PORs to iterated rippled noise (IRN) and Huggins pitch (HP), representing prototypical pitch-in-noise signals, were measured in twenty subjects during a pitch identification task (333 Hz, 400 Hz, randomized). HP and IRN yielded similar responses, lateralized to the left hemisphere and peaking about 180 ms after pitch onset. The initial phase (140 ms) showed stronger activations to 400 than to 333 Hz whereas later stages (200-300 ms) showed target vs nontarget effects. These results suggest, first, that different pitches converge into a common cortical representation and, second, that the POR encompasses various successive processing stages.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

Pre-attentive detection of syntactic and semantic errors.

This magnetoencephalographic study tested whether magnetic fields evoked by syntactic and semantic errors differ in their time course and magnitude from fields evoked by phonemic differences. An oddball design, using German sentences with embedded critical words was applied: The error condition (with the standard word RASEN, lawn, in 70% of the trials, and the syntactic and semantic errors ROSEN, roses and RIESEN, giant as deviants) was compared with a neutral, correct phonemic condition. Mismatch responses were significantly larger for syntactic and semantic errors as compared to mere phonemic deviations. The semantic error elicited higher mismatch responses than the syntactic error. This error-sensitive component is interpreted as a very early detector for semantic and syntactic errors.

Attention↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Plasticity of the human auditory cortex induced by discrimination learning of non-native, mora-timed contrasts of the Japanese language.

In this magnetoencephalographic (MEG) study, we examined with high temporal resolution the traces of learning in the speech-dominant left-hemispheric auditory cortex as a function of newly trained mora-timing. In Japanese, the "mora" is a temporal unit that divides words into almost isochronous segments (e.g., na-ka-mu-ra and to-o-kyo-o each comprises four mora). Changes in the brain responses of a group of German and Japanese subjects to differences in the mora structure of Japanese words were compared. German subjects performed a discrimination training in 10 sessions of 1.5 h each day. They learned to discriminate Japanese pairs of words (in a consonant, anni-ani; and a vowel, kiyo-kyo, condition), where the second word was shortened by one mora in eight steps of 15 msec each. A significant increase in learning performance, as reflected by behavioral measures, was observed, accompanied by a significant increase of the amplitude of the Mismatch Negativity Field (MMF). The German subjects' hit rate for detecting durational deviants increased by up to 35%. Reaction times and MMF latencies decreased significantly across training sessions. Japanese subjects showed a more sensitive MMF to smaller differences. Thus, even in young adults, perceptual learning of non-native mora-timing occurs rapidly and deeply. The enhanced behavioral and neurophysiological sensitivity found after training indicates a strong relationship between learning and (plastic) changes in the cortical substrate.

Adult↗